Essay

Glossary Term – Event

The 1860 election revealed how divided the country had become. There were essentially two separate sectional campaigns: one in the North, pitting Abraham Lincoln against Stephen A. Douglas, and one in the South between John C. Breckinridge and John Bell. Only Stephen Douglas mounted a truly national campaign. The Republicans did not campaign in the South and Lincoln’s name did not appear on the ballot in ten states. In the final balloting, Lincoln won only 39.9 percent of the popular vote, but received 180 Electoral College votes, fifty-...

Glossary Term – Event

Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which overturned the Missouri Compromise. This opened Kansas and Nebraska to white settlement and allowed popular sovereignty to determine slave- or free-state status in territories seeking statehood. The act destroyed the Whig Party, divided the Democratic Party, and prompted the creation the Republican Party. The author of this legislation was Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who had pushed the Compromise of 1850 through Congress. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Douglas had proposed...

Glossary Term – Event

In a series of seven political debates across the state of Illinois, Senate-hopeful Abraham Lincoln and incumbent Stephen Douglas argued the question of slavery. Though Lincoln lost to Douglas, the debates pushed him into the nation’s consciousness and made him a viable presidential candidate in 1860.

Glossary Term – Event

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 were hurried into print in April 1860 to help garner support for Lincoln’s presidential bid and immediately become a best seller. The impetus and final arrangements for publishing the debates came from several top Republican leaders. Although Lincoln lost the Senate seat in 1858, the debates became widely known due to this publication and were crucial to his subsequent nomination for president. Despite several better-known candidates, they made Lincoln an acceptable choice for the Republican Party. Of...